The effect of thermal treatment on the electrical properties of MBE-AlInAs

The effect of thermal treatment on the electrical properties of Al/sub 0.48/In/sub 0.52/As/InP materials grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) has been investigated using Schottky barrier structures. It was found that the intrinsic defects incorporated in MBE-AlInAs layers cause an excess tunneling current at forward and reverse bias, and are responsible for the low barrier height of Schottky diodes. Thermal annealing at T/sub A/>500/spl deg/C annihilates the major defects in the AlInAs layer, which results in a reduction of the excess tunneling current and enhancement of the barrier height. These results therefore, demonstrate a method to overcome the shortcomings introduced by defects and to improve the electrical properties of MBE-AlInAs materials. >